That makes sense

The great paradox with consciousness is that the more aware we are about anything the less we know about everything. When we begin our lives, we are aware of everything available to our senses. Our imaginations and our intuitions are unlimited in their variety and clairvoyance. As we grow older, as our knowledge base grows with our experiences, we become more analysts and predictors of what we have come to expect, than visionaries about what could be. In our materialistic world of course, it is very beneficial to be able to predict outcomes of our actions , i.e. the actions of others. We tend to favor an immediate analysis and decision about the next actions we may take than opening our minds to new possibilities. We tend to think of other possibilities as wishful thinking not rational reasoning. The paradox then is; the more we think we know, the less we can consider.

This makes sense. The more familiar or knowledgeable we are about any specific area of consideration, the more we factor that consideration into our world view of, well, everything.  This filtering of information is what our consciousness does. Our senses of sight, touch, smell, feeling and hearing filter in our observations, then our instincts, memories and knowledge analyze it and decide what to do about it. So, we are limited in our point of view (senses) and our perspective (understanding) about the world around us. Our consciousness naturally evaluates the probability of various outcomes based on our subjective view and understanding of the situation and then draws conclusions and formulates  the best plan of action.

Intelligence plays a significant role in our consciousness too. Let’s draw a distinction here. Knowledge is what we think we know about anything. Intelligence is how accurately we can evaluate the relationships between “known” facts and the probabilities of various possible scenarios. Some of us can see more possibilities and evaluate probabilities better than others. This makes us more intelligent. Some of us know more facts about more things, this makes us smarter. While the two can go hand in hand, the distinction is important.

Regardless our capacity for knowledge or intelligence, there is limit to our cognitive power caused by the effect of filters on our awareness that limit our consciousness.

Our intelligence makes us rely on our knowledge. The higher our level of intelligence, our reasoning power, the more we are likely to be limited by what we know. Our instincts are a form of intelligence that is also limited by knowledge but does not allow us to use our reasoning power. Instinct is a reflex action that is not reasoned but is learned.

Our consciousness is subjective. If our knowledge was not filtered by our limited awareness then we would have access to all knowledge, thus making us omniscient and our consciousness would no longer be subjective it would know the objective truth. If our awareness was objective then our intelligence would be absolute in its ability to predict the outcomes of our actions, making us omnipotent. If our conscious was not limited to our proximity to our existence, we would be everywhere all at once. We would be omnipresent.  If our consciousness was omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent we would be God.

Our subjective consciousness also provides us with our private feelings about our reality. Our reality is the subjective, filtered intellectualized version of the truth that is the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent facts of our existence. How we feel cannot be resolved by an algorithmic expression. It is personal and what makes our subjective consciousness irreplicable by computer programs or any version of AI. It is what makes us unique, interesting and unpredictable. All the qualities you don’t want AI to have. Scientist don’t know how feelings are developed in the consciousness. They are our secret door to our souls.